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Exdeath
]] Exdeath (エクスデス Ekusudesu), also known as X-Death or ExDeath, is the main antagonist and the final boss of Final Fantasy V. According to Ghido, Exdeath, despite his knightly appearance, was once, and still is, to an extent, a tree from the Great Forest of Moore. Story The original Warriors of Dawn, Galuf, Xezat, Kelger and Dorgann sealed Exdeath within the crystals of Bartz's world for 30 years prior to the start of the game. But eventually his dark influence caused the crystals to shatter one by one in a series of catastrophes, as he began to take control of denizens of the world to break them, including the Queen of Karnak and King Tycoon. His first in-game appearance was in the Ronka Ruins, after he was finally released from his seal when the Earth Crystal was shattered. He then teleported himself back to his castle in Galuf's homeworld, to resume his reign of terror. Galuf and his grandaughter Krile returned as well to rally a counter-attack. The remaining Warriors of Light followed them, but were soon captured by one of Exdeath's minions soon after arriving, and he used them as hostages in order to keep Galuf from progressing any further in the siege against his castle. In response, Galuf made a daring prison break and the party fought their way way back across the Big Bridge, defeating Exdeath's lieutenant Gilgamesh, before his Barrier eventually activated, sending the Light Warriors hurling across the world. Eventually, Exdeath made an example of what happens to those who did not support his unknown cause when he sunk Ghido's island. It was revealed later by the sage that what Exdeath is seeking resides in the Great Forest of Moore, his original birthplace. When the warriors had broken the seals that binded what Exdeath sought, they found that they were truly the crystals, and they had just done Exdeath's dirty work. He then used the power of the crystals to torture the Warriors of Light, and after Krile failed to rescue them, Galuf finally resisted the power and took on Exdeath. Powered by hope, Galuf was seemingly unstoppable in the battle against Exdeath. This forced the warlock to retreat, but Galuf had died soon after and one of the crystals shattered, and after this Krile became a Light Warrior in his stead. Exdeath was soon confronted at his castle, where he had taken the remaining crystals, and was apparently defeated. The crystals had shattered though, which resulted in the two worlds becoming merged. Exdeath resurfaced again, disguised as a splinter in Krile's hand. At Ghido's Cave (now once again above sea level), Exdeath revealed himself and his true goal: to control The Void, originally created by Enuo and in the process returning the world to a state of chaos. The Void had been sealed in the Interdimensional Rift when the worlds were split, but with the worlds recombined the Rift soon emerged over Castle Tycoon. Exdeath began to seize control of the Void, sending many parts of world into the Void as demonstration of its power. He also took command of the many demons of the Rift, promising to build for them a world of darkness with the Void. .]] Under Ghido's guidance, the party took the newly reformed Sealed Tome and used it to retrieve the Sealed Weapons of Castle Kuza, and the Light Warriors climbed into the Rift. By the time they reached Exdeath, he had finally mastered the Void and returned to his original form: a monstrous tree. His attempts to use the Void of them were thwarted, however, by the spirits of the Dawn Warriors who restrained the Void. After a heated battle, Exdeath himself was engulfed by the Void much to his distress. He transformed into Neo Exdeath: a being of hatred and nihility, desiring to erase all existence (including his own) for eternity. After a long final battle, the dark entity disappears forever. No one can be sure if Exdeath was truly destroyed after that occurrence. After all, Enuo was seemingly destroyed 1,000 years prior to the events of Final Fantasy V, and yet you fight his Void-consumed self in the Sealed Temple after you beat the game (this may simply be a non-canon easter egg, however, since Enuo is--according to the game's storyline--sealed within the tree that became Exdeath). Nevertheless, Exdeath is never seen nor heard from again... Strength Exdeath, being the incarnation of countless evil beings sealed inside the tree he once was, is stupendous in spell-related combat. Though he rarely ever uses it, he is also decent in close combat with his sword as well. Throughout the duration of the game, Exdeath treats Bartz and his party as mere pests in the way of his withstanding goal, and constantly swats them away without killing them, seeing no reason to dispose of such a mild threat. The extent of his power is also displayed when it is mentioned that all Galuf and the others could do was seal him because "he kept going down, but wouldn't stay down." Exdeath seems to be also able to destroy large areas with artificial disasters created by his extraordinary power (e.g. causing an earthquake to sink Ghido's Island, burning down the Great Forest of Moore). Also, he may have had limited power or influence over the Void even before obtaining it, as he shows when throwing Gilgamesh into the Interdimensional Rift. Once Exdeath claimed the Void, his power soared. He was now able to erase any part of existence with a thought, channeling the Void to engulf it and sending it into another random dimension. It is also a significant display of power when it is revealed that the only way the Light Warriors were able to defeat him was when his own power turned against him. Battle Exdeath is fought three times in the course of Final Fantasy V. Other Appearances Dissidia Final Fantasy Chaos summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate villains in an attempt to gain control of a number of Crystals, resulting in total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. Exdeath is one of these villains. He stands as the villain opposing Bartz Klauser. His design seems virtually unchanged from his original artwork. His alternate costume gives him a shiny appearence, making him resemble the Exdeath's Soul enemy in the Sealed Castle. Exdeath has been seen sparingly and has the dubious distinction of being the least seen villain thus far. In his thus-far few scenes, he battles Bartz at the Dimension Castle, declaring he will consume everything into the Void. He also stands beside Kefka Palazzo when the villains gather in the Chaos Shrine, but the two do not interact. In the story, Exdeath has a haughty attitude, but is self-conscious in his decision to appear as just another warrior of Chaos. He stands to stop the Warriors of Cosmos from obtaining the Crystals, and he remains a thorn in their side as he does so. He will be teaming up with Kuja, since evidently Bartz has allied himself with Zidane Tribal. Together, along with Kefka and Cloud of Darkness, they are a part of the destruction faction, who are completely loyal to Chaos and whose only goal is to destroy the world and possibly even all of existence. Exdeath seems to play an extremely vital role in Dissidia's storyline, as he makes numerous appearances in many of the heroes' travels. In Bartz' story, Exdeath is seen guarding the crystal from him, but Bartz is too fast for him, and he retrieves the crystal without too much trouble. The crystal is later revealed to have been a hoax, however, and Exdeath explains to Bartz and Squall Leonhart that he and Kuja had purposely allowed Bartz to retrieve the crystal so that he would give it to Zidane, thereby allowing Kuja to imprison him. He later encounters Exdeath again, and this time they engage in combat, through which Bartz is victorious. Exdeath retreats, and Bartz retrieves the crystal successfully. He is also fought as a boss in Cecil's story after accusing Golbez of treason. Exdeath is described as being a user of the dark powers of the Void and is described as a "guard-and-counter" character. He appears to use the Reaper Sword attack, one of his trademark skills, along with Void themed attacks. Exdeath is very slow (though his ability to teleport makes up for this, at best), but his guard abilities and counter attacks are powerful - it has been speculated by the development team that if a player mastered his guard techniques, Exdeath would be virtually invincible. Exdeath's EX Mode is based on his tree form, and the name of his EX Burst is "The laws of the universe mean nothing!", in which the player is required to hold the circle button down until the bar goes down to 0. Once released, Exdeath will cast "Neo Almagest" if the bar was at 0, or the weaker "Grand Cross" if it was held down too long or released too early. He is voiced by Tarou Ishida in the Japanese version. Trivia *The Esper Exodus from Final Fantasy XII and Totema Exodus from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance share Exdeath's characteristics. The Esper Exodus resembles Exdeath's knightly form with tree like qualities, while the Totema pays homage to his tree form. Category:Final Fantasy V non-player characters Category:Villains Category:Dissidia Characters es:Exdeath